More Virginia voters prefer President Barack Obama than Republican candidate Mitt Romney, but many consider themselves more conservative on economic issues than the president, according to a statewide poll by Old Dominion University and The Virginian-Pilot.

When asked whom they would vote for on Nov. 6, 49 percent of those surveyed said Obama, 42 percent chose Romney, 5 percent said they wouldn't vote for either and 3 percent were undecided or wouldn't say.

Obama's 7-percentage-point advantage is significant, said Jesse Richman, an assistant professor of political science at ODU who analyzed the poll results.

But Romney may be able to cut into that lead, Richman said, because voters said they consider their views on economic policy closer to the Republican candidate's.

Old Dominion University's Social Science Research Center, in consultation with The Virginian-Pilot, conducted phone interviews with 776 voting-age Virginians from May 16 through June 15. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

6. electoral vote site today BLASTED We Ask America

www.electoral-vote.com

"There were several polls from We Ask America today whose results seemed so out of line with other polls that it warranted more examination. For the presidency in Virginia, it had Romney +5%, when the most recent five polls had Obama up +3%, +5%, +4%, and +7%, with even Rasmussen showing it to be a tie. For the Virginia Senate race, We Ask America had George Allen up over Tim Kaine by +9%. The most recent five polls there have Kaine up by +2%, +1%, +6%, 0%, and +1%, respectively. Now things can change although nothing special has happened in Virginia lately. Kaine didn't invoke any zoo animals or anything like that. Now consider this story, admittedly from a left-of-center source, but there is no reason to doubt the specific facts it gives. It appears that We Ask America has deep ties to the Illinois Manufacturers' Association and the Republican Party.

It would be wonderful if all pollsters were completely honest and neutral, but we know from past experience this is not always the case. In 2009, Nate Silver found strong evidence that Strategic Vision was making up the numbers because they were not statistically random. He also raised serious issues about Research 2000, which was then working for Daily Kos, which dropped and sued it. None of this is to say that We Ask America is making up numbers, but the combination of numbers that are so far out of line with other pollsters combined with deep ties to the Republican Party, is very suspicious. For this reason, I am now regarding We Ask America as a partisan pollster. All We Ask America polls have been removed from the database.

There is nothing wrong with a pollster being partisan. Many pollsters are proud to say things like: "We have helped elect 52 Republicans to public office." That is good advertising. The problem with We Ask American is that it appears to be stealth partisan and the numbers look awfully fishy".